Andy Murray says he is mentally exhausted after exiting 2013 US Open following Stanislas Wawrinka defeat

Andy Murray admitted on Thursday night that mental exhaustion had played its
part in his failure to find his best form at the US Open this year, but the
Scot insisted that the pressure of being the defending champion had had
“zero bearing on today’s match”.

Look of fear: Andy Murray crashed out of the US Open after losing to Stanislas WawrinkaPhoto: GETTY IMAGES

But while he admitted that he had found it difficult to train with his usual intensity since eclipsing Fred Perry as Britain’s most recent Wimbledon champion, he argued that even reaching the last eight is an estimable achievement in this quality era of men’s tennis.

“I don’t think I was playing poorly,” he said. “I got to the quarterfinals of a slam, which isn’t easy. I have been here nearly three weeks now. I practiced a lot, and played quite a lot of matches, as well. So I gave myself a chance to do well because I prepared properly.

“I would have liked to have played a little bit better, but, you know, I have had a good run the last couple of years.

“It’s a shame I had to play a bad match today. I didn’t get into enough return games, which is disappointing for me. That’s normally something I do pretty well. I always give myself opportunities to break serve, and I didn’t today.

“Stan hit big shots. He passed extremely well. He hit a lot of lines on big points. He served well. That was it. He played a great match.” The one area Murray has not been happy with in New York is the scheduling.

When he discovered that he was playing the day match on Thursday, and Novak Djokovic the night session, he posted a sarcastic tweet saying “Perfect for players after having finished press after midnight on Thursday night.”

Admittedly, this was hardly a disadvantage in Thursday’s match, given that Wawrinka’s fourth-round match against Tomas Berdych only finished around 20 minutes before his own victory over Denis Istomin on Tuesday night.

But Murray was also irritated by the fact that he didn’t start his opening match until Wednesday night, more than 48 hours after Rafael Nadal had eased through into the second round.

Asked about the orders of play yesterday, he replied “I don’t really want to get into that. You guys can see for yourself how the schedule worked out.

“When you play the first round over three days, it’s tough.” These details will be quickly forgotten once the new champion — whoever it is — takes possession of the trophy on Monday night.

As for Murray, he can turn his attention to the clay courts of Umag and next weekend’s Davis Cup tie against Croatia, where a victory would lift Great Britain back into the World Group for the first time since 2008.

“I need to take a few days’ rest and then get practicing on the clay and hopefully we can win the match,” he said.